My Pet and Me

We meet house pig Frans, who keeps on jumping in and out of the trunk to find a nice place to walk, a hairdresser with a house full of hairless cats, a therapeutic pug, a champion dog-dancing, a giant spiritual snail, and a world-famous Instagram cat. What connects their owners is the boundless love for their animals, but also the apparent void they try to fill with them. A divorce, a baby on the way, autism, death, the search for a partner or the meaning of life – the owners find a listening ear in their pets. The film subtly plays with the boundaries of friendship, interdependence, and the concept of egalitarianism within human-animal relationships. Who exactly needs who? As in his previous films, Johan pays a cinematographic tribute to the ordinary Dutch landscape and its households. While we hear the animals smacking, sniffing, and grunting around, we are carried along their living experience. Enhanced by the specially composed music for each animal, from bombastic pig trumpets to alien-like hypnotic snail ambient, Johan and his crew know how to capture the atmosphere flawlessly.